


Fragments

by FidgetyWriter



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-09
Updated: 2014-05-24
Packaged: 2018-01-15 02:28:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1287835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FidgetyWriter/pseuds/FidgetyWriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Glances at a romance three years and near-total-extinction-of-the-galaxy in the making. Some romantic/some not. Non-chronological one-shots.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 27 Questions

Garrus knows there are approximately twenty-seven questions he should ask Shepard before he asks the one burning on his tongue.

He should ask for an update on Earth. He should ask how she’s been or how incarceration treated her. He should ask her why she’s on Menae or maybe he even express how happy he is to see her. He should ask why the Council won’t help or how she plans to work around their apathy.

But as they climb a particularly steep hill on their search for Victus and his men, the one question he cannot contain comes spilling out. It seems insignificant and almost silly in light of the Reaper invasion. But it is the one that matters most to him.

“Have you heard from Tali?”

Shepard gives him an inquisitive look as she swings her legs up over the edge of the ridge they’re scaling and pulls herself to the top.

“No,” she admits. “Nobody’s heard from the Quarians in a while.”

“Of course,” he admits. “I just hoped…”

Inadvertently his hand goes to his breast pocket and he feels for the crinkled photograph lying pressed against his chest.

It is an old photo from one of the many military events after Soveriegn’s defeat. In it stands the crew of the Normandy. His arm is slung over Tali’s shoulders (he remembers being a little drunk at this particular celebration), and hers is wrapped around his waist. He remembers her laughter.

It is the only picture he has of the two of them together.

He misses her more than he can bear, and he doesn’t know why.


	2. Left Behind

“Garrus!”

He is vaguely aware that his name is being called as he continues to stare at the closed airlock. He has just said good-bye to his best friend in the entire galaxy and watched her sprint away toward the Citadel beam glowing above a decimated London.

His head aches…all of him aches. He should be going with her. Shepard and Garrus have been a team since before she was even a Spectre. 

But she had insisted that he go as blue blood poured from the gash on the top of his head down into his eyes.

Someone begins leading him away from the airlock. He stumbles, unable to fight against the firm grip, even though he wants to demand they drop him off so he can go back and join Shepard in this one last rush to destroy the Reapers.

He allows Dr. Chakwas to lead him into the elevator, and its usually gentle hum pounds into his skull. He has abandoned his best friend. No one can convince him otherwise. He should have gone with her to the end…even crawled there if necessary. Instead, he is running away to the safety of the Normandy like a coward.

The med-bay doors slide open (he is not even aware of having left the elevator), and Dr. Chakwas is forcing him onto a bed where she applies pressure and some medi-gel to the wound in his head.

But suddenly a different pair of hands is on him. They are warmer and smoother; the feel of enviro-suited fingers tracing circles against his flesh is inexplicably soothing.

“Tali,” he breathes, and she tilts his head upward to look her in the eyes (or at least what he can see of them through her face mask).

“You did so well,” she tells him.

And at these words, he breaks. The pain and anxiety and heartbreak of the past several months all come bubbling to the surface at once, and he lets out a howl, unable to contain it.

Tali puts her arms around him and waits for the outpouring of grief to pass. Years of rigorous turian military and C-Sec training have instilled in him a firm backbone, and the episode passes quickly. He sinks into the heat of Tali’s embrace.

And they wait to hear news of Shepard, standing there for a tense hour just holding one another.

It helps to have something to come back to, and he has returned to her just as he promised before the final assault on Earth.

He finds the thought of facing whatever may come bearable because of Tali. Whether Shepard lives and destroys the Reapers or she fails and the Reapers continue their assault on most galactic life, they have each other.

And in the face of such unimaginable chaos and destruction and so many unknowns, that is really all that matters.


End file.
